SOMEWHERE UP NORTH, Minn. — Like so many big things, it started small, this fall tradition, a father and son from the Twin Cities area venturing to a friend’s place “Up North” to try their luck at ruffed grouse hunting during the long MEA weekend when kids get two days off from school.
It was October 1999 (give or take a year), and they’d just completed their firearms safety training together, so there was a bit of a learning curve in figuring out where and how to hunt the birds, which can be either incredibly wary … or incredibly not wary.
Some might say dumb, but I’ve been humbled enough to say otherwise.
Whether the birds were wary or otherwise, there was plenty of public land to explore within a few miles of camp, and so opportunities weren’t hard to come by.
This wasn’t a hardcore dawn-to-dusk kind of hunting trip. Instead, days at camp were pretty laid-back. Ruffed grouse hunting doesn’t require venturing out before dawn — a big attraction for some in this crew — and can be as laid-back or intense as a hunter wants it to be.
A typical day would start with a late morning hunt, followed by a mid-afternoon siesta and a late afternoon hunt to close out the day.
As a campfire blazes, an NHL hockey game is projected on a 10-by-20-foot screen at a northern Minnesota hunting camp Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (Brad Dokken / Forum News Service)
Nights were usually spent by the fire — at least when it wasn’t raining — taking in the sounds and smells of northern Minnesota in the fall. Saturday night was devoted to watching “Hockey Night in Canada” on the Canadian Broadcast Corp., one of the few over-the-air channels available back in those early days so far in the boonies.
The ruffed grouse — or “partridges,” as many people Up North incorrectly call them — were abundant enough to keep this father and son coming back.
So it was that a tradition was born. Just like the traditions that take place at so many hunting camps everywhere.
Crew expands
Over time, other friends joined the crew and put the annual “October Trip” get-together on their calendars. A bunkhouse was built to accommodate the larger crew — up to nine people have been in camp at various times — and the addition of a patio made time around the firepit even more comfortable.
So did the addition of a projector, a portable 10-by-20-foot screen, a Roku stick and high-speed internet for streaming hockey games and the occasional B-movie outside by the firepit.
Totally unnecessary, of course, but now part of the tradition.
Also part of the tradition, thanks to the culinary skills of two in the crew, meals turned into five-star affairs. This year’s camp menu included steaks and garlic-mashed potatoes, antelope in plum reduction sauce with twice-baked potatoes, antelope stew with a zing that was absolutely amazing and, for the final evening, the traditional grouse casserole.
New twist
More recently, the Minnesota youth deer season that coincides with the MEA break has added a new twist to the weekend for the youngest member of the crew. Now 15, he shot his first deer during the 2021 youth season and has filled his youth tag every year since.
This year, he shot a 9-point buck late in the afternoon on the second day of the season. As if that wasn’t good enough, he also shot his first limit of ruffed grouse during the trip.
“For one 15-year-old, four days in October is better than Christmas,” his dad would say later. “It is groups and trips like this that will keep a kid coming back for the rest of his life.”
And so it went during four days in October, a fine gathering despite some occasional weather setbacks. While some of the “old guys” in the crew are slowing down and spend more time lounging by the fire than traipsing through the woods, the two “youngsters” in the group — the oldest “kid” now 37 — are keeping the tradition burning strong.
As it should be.
May that tradition burn for many years to come.
At hunting camps everywhere.
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